1. Field of the Invention
The present invention belongs to the field of electronic component manufacturing. In particular, the present invention belongs to the field of manufacturing relays.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Typical relay construction is disclosed, for example, by U.S. Pat. No. 4,596,972. Therein, a contact spring arcuately surrounds an armature bearing and has its terminal section secured to a ferromagnetic yoke, wherein the yoke in turn forms a downwardly applied terminal pin. Given such a relay, where load current is conducted over the yoke, the current path in the relay is comparatively long to the terminal. Moreover, the ferromagnetic yoke material has limited conductivity. This has an unbeneficial effect for the switch capability of high currents when the terminal pin, having a relatively small cross section, is manufactured of the same material as the yoke. Moreover, a terminal pin applied to the yoke requires an additional outlay when the relay housing is to be sealed.
In similarly constructed relays that are designed for high load currents, it is also known to conduct the load current from a terminal pin secured in a base via a stranded copper conductor directly to the contact spring and to the contact piece secured thereto German Patent Document DE 34 28 595 C2. In this way, the yoke need not carry the load current. The use of the stranded conductor, however, requires additional outlay for material and assembly.
Given these known relays, the fixed contact carriers and, potentially, the contact spring/terminal pin themselves, are respectively manufactured as punched parts and mounted by a plug-in procedure in pre-shaped shafts and clearances of the coil body or of a base. These parts are subsequently affixed by a notching process or by self-pressing. This structure has the disadvantage that the parts either are not seated firmly with positive lock in the plastic part due to tolerance reasons, or that particles are abraded during assembly as a result of overlaps of parts. These particles can lead to problems later in the relay, for example on the contacts, in the armature bearing or in the working air gap. A high outlay must be exerted in the manufacture in order to eliminate the particles with blower or suction devices.
Although it is known to punch discrete parts, such as contact carriers, of sheet metal and to extrusion-coat these parts either individually or interconnectedly into strips, this type of manufacture has the disadvantage that the parts must be inserted into the injection molding form. Moreover, strip fabrication requires a high consumption of material. In both instances, a high outlay is required in order to adapt the injection molding form to the punching tools to enable a good sealing of the form in the region of the punch burrs.
The present invention overcomes these problems of the prior art by offering an uncomplicated and economical method of producing a relay comprising a coil body having a coil tube, two coil flanges and a winding, a core having an L-shaped yoke, an armature connected to a contact spring, a terminal pin for the contact spring, and at least one first fixed contact carrier having a fixed contact.